The mission of the Skirball Cultural
Center is to celebrate and cultivate the links between American democratic
values and the Jewish heritage. Through our museum exhibitions and public
programming, the Center strives to deepen the understanding of the origins
of American families and their role in strengthening American society.
Currently the Center is redesigning its web site to transform it from
an electronic brochure to a more content-driven site. One feature being
developed relates to family histories and the immigrant experience.
To more fully portray the immigrant experience and to illustrate the
relationships between different communities, we are collaborating with
other cultural institutions to create a virtual "Rashomon" - to tell
similar narratives but from different voices. The method we are developing
involves creating contextual hyper-links within a non-linear narrative
that connects a partner institutionsí web site. Hyper-links generally
follow a linear model where a user enters a particular site, selects
a link to navigate within or to another web portal. We are creating
links with partner institutionsí sites that occur within the context
of the actual narrative. On our site for example, we tell the story
of a Russian Jewish family that immigrated to Los Angeles in the 1920's
and had neighbors who were Japanese immigrants. The Japanese American
National Museum web site tells the story of this Japanese family. Within
the narratives on the different sites, there are anecdotes and stories
about the interactions and relationships between the families. These
interactions provide the context for direct links between the individual
family stories that reside on the various partner web sites. There are
several goals for our virtual "Rashomon" project, including celebrating
positive attributes of the immigrant experience, promoting collaborations
between institutions and communities, developing technology that will
access and create on-the-fly content and utilizing the computer as a
creative tool in the storytelling and the narrative process.

In Grandfatherís Virtual Kitchen

Imagine this, you are sitting with your
family at the kitchen table after a big meal and discussing the family
history and legends. Grandfather, an immigrant, is entertaining everyone
with stories about his experiences as a greenhorn in this country where
the streets were supposed to be paved with gold, but in reality, people
were lucky if they were paved at all. At one point he says: "Remember
that other family who lived across the street from us? They were from
another country from us, but my, how we had fun with them at their holiday
picnics. I wonder what happened to them?" And then, at that moment,
you find yourself magically transported (or beamed) over to the kitchen
table of that family, where they are discussing their familyís stories
and how much they enjoyed celebrating a holiday with your grandfather.
What you have just experienced is an example of a contextual link in a
non-linear narrative. Although it is impossible to experience this in
real life/space, with research, thought and planning you can make these
excursions in the digital world. But before we make these journeys, we
must first define the concepts of non-linear narrative and define contextual
links. In some ways, the concept is easier than the answer. The short
description is that it is a method of telling multiple viewpoints of a
story across multiple web sites with multiple entrance portals.

History of Non-linear Narrative

Non-linear narrative is not really
a new idea, so it would be interesting to take a brief, subjective overview
of its history along with examples of how it appears in different media.

The first example of non-linear
narrative is text based: the Talmud, the Jewish books of law and commentaries.
The Talmud as a physical entity is a set of 63 volumes originally compiled
around 500 C.E. in Babylonia to preserve generations of analysis and discussion
by rabbis and scholars. It contains extra-legal and anecdotal material
relating to all aspects of life- such as dietary laws, marriage, divorce,
religious ritual and agricultural laws. Although at first glance the books
seem similar to an encyclopedia, they are far more complex. The breadth
and organization of Talmud is similar to random-access type memory organization
of the web. One of the reasons for this is that the Talmud contains one
of the primary functions of non-linear narrative ñ hypertext (a term invented
by Ted Nelson, a few short centuries after the Talmud was compiled). The
physical structure of a page of Talmud (Figure 1) facilitates a non-linear
process. It consists of a main text block in the center of the page surrounded
by several smaller text block in different font styles and sizes.

Figure 1

Detail of the first Page of
volume one, "Benedictions" of the Steinsaltz Edition of the
Babylonian Talmud.

The main text is located in the
center of the page and usually addresses a particular problem, dilemma
or question in the form of a story. Surrounding this block are comments
by different scholars and rabbis also written in the form of stories,
and comments that address the main text unit. Additionally, these side
comments often refer to text blocks and commentaries located in other
volumes of Talmud. A person studying Talmud does not simply pick up a
particular volume and read. It is necessary to jump from point to point,
page to page and often volume to volume to understand any one section.

Several centuries after Talmud was
compiled, the printing press was developed. After some fits and starts
pertaining to the use of this new machine, a form of narrative story was
developed called the novel. Early forms of novels were presented in a
linear manner. In her wonderful book Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet
Murray describes an early exploration of non-linear form. She uses the
example from the 18th century novel Tristram Shandy
written by Laurence Stern in which the narrator: "Öinserts black
pages, numbering chapters as if they have been re-arranged, claims to
have torn out certain pages and sends us back to reread certain chapters.
In short, he does everything he can to remind us of the physical form
of the book that we are reading". Although Stern came up with some
very interesting literary devices, the basic format of the book still
remains rooted in linear methodology. The reader turns page after page.

This century also has its forms
of non-linear media, a recent example being the interactive-audience-participatory-theater-experience.
About 10 years ago I saw (or more realistically, participated in) a play
called Tamara. The play was performed in a large veteranís hall
in Hollywood that had been an old mansion and was furnished in a 1930ís
art deco manner. Upon entering the "theater" I was handed a
ticket designed as a passport and led into a large foyer cocktail party
where the servers were all members of the cast. The theme of the play
was about a group of actors, fascists, and anti-fascists, gathered in
a mansion in pre-WWII Italy. At a certain point, the cocktail party ended
and the play began as the actors shifted from servers into their roles.
We the audience ("party guests") were divided into groups and
began to follow cast members around the mansion, up and down staircases,
through passages and in and out of rooms as they interacted with other
cast members, acting out separate, but connected plots. Although the audience
was encouraged to stay with one or two particular characters, we could
shift to other groups of actors if one particular story line looked more
interesting. The timing of the actors was amazing! Because of the complexity
of the story, it was virtually impossible to understand the complete story,
so each member of the audience was presented with just one small view.
Intermission was in the dining hall, and as we ate, we all exchanged information
to get a better picture of what was happening. Multiple attendance of
the play was encouraged by reduced ticket prices for each subsequent viewing.
I think the fourth or fifth visit was free. Although it was at times a
bit unbalancing trying to figure out what was happening, it was a fascinating,
entertaining and fun experience to participate in breaking the boundaries
of the medium.

The development of cinema has also
increased the exploration of non-linear narrative. Popular movies such
as Back to the Future, Groundhog Day, and the more obscure Head
(the 1968 movie by the Monkees), or the German film Zentropa play
with our sense of time and place. The audience is not a passive observer,
but must become an active participant to assemble the various plot threads
of narrative to a coherent story. In Hamlet on the Holodeck, Murray
writes about two significant terms necessary in the discussion of non-linear
narrative ñ"multiform stories" and "active audience".
She defines "multiform stories" as "Öwritten or dramatic
narrative that presents a single plot line in multiple versionsÖ"
and "active audience" as the result of a "Öwriter expands
the story to include multiple possibilities, the reader assumes a more
active role".

Kurosawaís cinematic masterpiece
Rashomon is a wonderful example of multiform stories" to promote
an "active audience". The story revolves around a large gate
in the middle of a forest in which two peasants are discussing an incident
involving a samurai, his wife and a bandit. Something took place in which
the samurai was killed, the bandit was arrested and the wife may or may
not have been raped. The story is told through multiple voices (including
the dead samurai as channeled by a medium!). The audience cannot sit by
and idly watch the film. It is necessary to pay close attention to detail
to attempt to discern the true facts. Because there is no concrete resolution
at the end of the film, the audience is left in a rather ambiguous position.
The beauty of this is that each member of the audience must come to his
or her own conclusion that satisfies his or her individual interpretation
of the events presented.

Introduction to Non-linear Theory

As much as these books, films and
theater explore non-linear narrative, utilizing devices such as the cinematic
flashback, they are limited by the individual strengths and weaknesses
of their particular media and can only be presented in a linear fashion
(page-after-page, scene-after-scene). There is though, one distinct idea
that connects all of the examples. In one manner or another they are all
procedural experiences. Although the conclusions may be gratifying, what
makes these examples compelling and interesting is their dynamic nature.
They are all about how you arrive rather then actually arriving. In their
on-line manual, The Digital Cookbook, Joe Lambert and Nina Mullen
describe this form of story telling as "the journey". While
other forms of stories use the traditional literary devices to set a premise,
then to create tension as characters move along a path to achieve specific
goals (get the guy/girl, solve the crime and find the culprit, slay the
dragon, etc.), the goal of the journey is the journey. The experiences
and lessons learned are the central forces behind the journey. In some
ways, whether the hero/heroine achieves his/her goal is secondary to the
route that they pass through. This form of story telling can be unfulfilling
because of the lack of any concrete resolution, although this is really
not the case in the previously mentioned media (except for Talmud). Conversely,
the journey story can also be a compelling, exciting and even addictive
experience. The movie serials in the early days of cinema, or the soap
operas of today command huge audiences because of the fact that there
are no real conclusions. Characters come and go, adventures happen day
after day and the audience is continually drawn back to part of the process.

At this point, the age of computer
and World Wide Web enter the picture. From the campfire, to stages, pages
and silver screen, storytelling has always reflected the primary media
of a specific time period, and the computer age is no different. Currently,
we are in the infant stages of investigating the results of the intersection
of form (digital content) and function (technology). There are several
specific elements that differentiate the medium of computers and Internet
from earlier media. The most important one is that this particular media
is incredibly dynamic both in terms of the development of technology and
how it is used. It is interesting to note that movies and books have an
audience but the world wide web and CD-ROMS have users and
that these users are active participants in choosing their own paths and
journeys (much like real life). This could lead non-linear stories to
be rather chaotic experiences. Ultimately, stories require a basic framework
and structure to be satisfying and compelling. A story properly planned
and executed will allow a user to travel along a dynamic path of a general
topic for exploration and adventure. Imagine being able to enter a story
and choose which character you wish to be the narrator, and then being
able to choose another character to experience the same adventure from
a different viewpoint, or to choose different charactersí paths and journeys
to the same incident or location.

The two technical elements that
allow for this kind of interaction are 1) the recognition that the computer
is an engine; and 2) the relational database. Simply put, every computer
on this planet can hold multiple databases. The computer, as an active
engine, can theoretically access these databases and publish real time
web pages that display discrete quantities of relevant content.

How This All Fits Together

Exploring family stories is not
new to the web, with many interesting examples. One interesting example
site is My History is Americaís History, a project of the NEH.
This educational program teaches people methods of gathering family stories
and then encourages them to post their favorite family stories on the
web. Another is Abbe Donís wonderful site called Bubbeís Back Porch.
This site has an area for a digital story bee along with requests for
submissions of individuals family stories and photos. Both of these examples
require active participation- gathering and posting information along
with surfing the site. Ultimately though, they are presented in a linear
web format. A visitor enters the site, explores one or more particular
stories within the site and then exits.

Our project is tentatively called,
Grandfatherís Virtual Kitchen because people tend to congregate
in the family kitchen and that is where some of the best stories are told.
We want to tell the stories of immigrant families and the relationships
that existed within different communities. Although immigrant groups have
naturally tended to reside together in neighborhoods, there has been one
unifying force among the different communities- they are all "strangers
in a strange land". It would be false to say that there were no problems-
there are plenty of examples of the conflicts, stress and tensions that
existed (and still exist) between various communities. This is not the
purpose of Grandfatherís Virtual Kitchen Our purpose is to portray
the stories of immigrant families and how, over time, positive relationships
between different groups have developed. It is far more interesting and
relevant for us to illustrate examples of how communities can co-exist
with tolerance and mutual respect.

A sentence found in our mission
statement sets the tone for Grandfatherís Virtual Kitchen: "Just
as the American immigrant experience is different for each group and individual
arriving on these shores, the Skirball Cultural Center provides an unrivaled
rainbow of programs and opportunities to enrich each visitor." This
idea is manifested both in the core collection of the museum component
of the Skirball Center, which focuses on Jewish history (especially the
American Jewish experience) and with our various other programs, including
musicians, speakers, theater, dance (and more) that highlight and celebrate
cultures and communities from around the globe. Additionally, our education
department has been involved in some creative community projects such
as Finding Family Stories. This project was developed by the Japanese
American National Museum and wasa collaboration with the Santa
Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Korean American Museum, Plaza de
la Raza and the Watts Towers Arts center. The goal of Finding Family
Stories was "grounded in the belief that cultural institutions,
representing different ethnic communities, could learn from one another-
both organizationally and culturally- through the process of developing,
implementing and working on a project together". With a basic understanding
that no community or cultural institution operates in isolation, these
five institutions created a model that "would not only reflect a
single cultural experience, but expand and open the doors to the experience
of others as well". The main activities of Finding Family Stories
were a series of collaborative workshops at partner institutions over
a three-year period, culminating in concurrent exhibitions at partner
institutions that highlighted "contemporary artists of each community
who incorporated and interpreted family stories within their work."

Grandfather's Virtual Kitchen
expands on the themes developed in Finding Family Histories
and begins to apply a non-linear narrative and contextual links theory
to practical applications. By using the Internet as the medium and the
web as the delivery platform, site visitors become active participants
in exploring the family stories and community interactions, rather than
simply being observers. As visitors to a particular site explore the stories,
photographs, video and sound clips of an individual family representing
a particular community, they will discover anecdotes about interactions
with families of other communities. These anecdotes provide the links
to the other families stories that are located at the partner institutionsí
web sites.

The collaborative process needed
in producing this project ñ to find partner institutions, develop content,
technology and links results in a process that is concurrent with the
goal- collaboration between communities.

General Process

As with any other interactive project,
the process of creating Grandfatherís Virtual Kitchen is as non-linear
as the end product. Each issue, question and decision uncovers a new series
of issues and questions requiring a new series of decisions (a can of
virtual worms). The problem of the chicken-or-egg syndrome then arises:
what comes first? The answer to this question is: the question.

The answer to the question of what
comes first in creating a non-linear narrative is also relatively simple-
itís the idea. In our specific case, it is the creation of a virtual space
that allows visitors to actively explore discreet family stories along
with the interactions and relationships between members of different communities.

The decisions and production process
that follow this simple idea are not quite so simple. It is necessary
to first identify and enlist partner institutions, followed by determining
production teams and the infrastructure. With a core team together it
is possible to begin to define the scope of the project. With this done,
the actual production process begins. Part of the beauty of the dynamic
nature of the web is that a project such as this can be developed incrementally,
initially involving three or four partner institutions, expanding as the
narrative and are developed.

Partner Institutions, Teams and Infrastructure

Collaboration is the order of the day,
so it is important to identify institutions and individuals that share
common goals and interests. It is not necessary for an institution to
confine itself to one particular niche. For example, although the Skirball
is a cultural center and museum, we do not need to limit our partners
only to other cultural museums. With a bit of imagination and creative
thinking, it is possible to expand collaborations to other types of institutions.
For example, if a member of our digital family is a scientist, we can
create a partnership with a science center/museum whose site has an area
that celebrates this individual's contribution to the scientific community.
Nor is it necessary to be confined to a single geographic area. Links
can be created with institutions across the country and world to show
the journeys of individual families. One possible scenario for us is to
begin our story with our virtual grandfatherís arrival to America with
a site/link to Ellis Island. Then, via links with museums and cultural
centers across America, we follow his path to Los Angeles.

Case Study- Overview

As previously discussed, there are
many issues that need to be examined when producing an interactive project.
Here are several examples of questions that we have encountered and how
they have currently been resolved.

The first step of Part I is one
of the most crucial elements of the process. The partners decide between
two styles of story telling- the composite story or exclusively true story.
True stories are the most compelling, but research can be difficult and
cost prohibitive. For our prototype, we have decided to develop stories
closer to a model of historical fiction, taking stories from selected
primary sources and weaving them together to create a narrative that matches
our goal. For example, our virtual grandfather is a Russian Jewish immigrant
whom we shall call "Ben". Ben had a dairy route with a horse
and wagon. One of his customers was a Japanese immigrant family whom we
shall call the "Kurosawas" and who owned a nursery. During World
War II, the Kurosawas had to leave their nursery when they were sent to
an internment camp in the California desert. The streets may not have
been paved of gold, but Benís heart was. He watched over the nursery and
returned the keys to the Kurosawas when they returned home after the war.

The events of this story are true,
but the composite is artificial. We have examples of righteous people
who assisted Japanese Americans during the war. We have the story of a
Jewish immigrant family who had a dairy wagon, Japanese customers and
a strong sense of ethics and justice. And we know about a Japanese American
family who owned a nursery, were sent to an internment camp and had a
neighbor who watched over their nursery while they were interred. What
is lacking is the direct link between these specific families. By creating
a composite of multiple family stories, based on true events we can illustrate
how people of different communities were able to assist each other during
times of adversity.

Composite stories based on historical
fiction can be powerful, but they require the site to have clear labels.
There are two additional components necessary to insure that the stories
retain their power and interest, and that visitors understand that they
are exploring historical composites. It is fundamental to have extensive
online bibliographies along with descriptive labels throughout the sites
informing visitors about the content

Style and Content

One of the issues relating to the actual
design is whether or not each partner will use the same visual template.
We want to create an illusion of the experience of visiting peoplesí homes,
so specific graphics and designs are created by the individual partner
that best reflect the sensibility of the community. The key issue is that
there must be a thematic continuity to site content. This requires creating
a structural template to insure that each partnerís site contains the
essential to the creation of contextual links.

Technology

Our first concern is to make this site
as accessible to both visitors and to partner institutions. It is an unfortunate
aspect of the non-profit world that not all institutions have the technology
or infrastructure to participate in this project. For this reason, we
have chosen to begin development with several local institutions that
have a basic level of technology, a presence on the web and are enthusiastic
about the idea. To keep storage requirements minimal the initial family
stories are relatively small, and the contextual links are limited. We
also decided to keep the design relatively simple to allow for a greater
number of visitors using older browsers and systems. As we develop content,
infrastructure and methodology, our stories and links will also grow,
as will the introduction of more sophisticated forms of media (video,
audio). Plans exist for outreach to other institutions that have entry
level technology to assist them with increasing the capabilities of their
systems and helping them develop a more solid web presence.

Future Growth

Grandfatherís
Virtual Kitchen is being built in components.
This will optimize the ability to expand the stories as associations with
new partner institutions develop. Additionally, discussions have begun
about school outreach programs, so those students can research and create
their own family stories and links (between schools and other institutions).

It is our
hope that Grandfatherís Virtual Kitchen will evolve along with
technology. In time, there will be web-casts about cultural events and
real-time discussions or moderated chat-rooms to share stories and ask
questions.

Conclusion

We believe that the stories of families
and immigrants are a vital component of the American experience. These
stories teach real-life lessons about tolerance, understanding and respect
that can be applied to communities around the world. Additionally, the
method of contextual links and non-linear narrative provides a dynamic
mechanism for story telling that makes the user an active participant
in exploring. It is not necessary to worry about a virtual grandfather
in a virtual kitchen replacing a real grandfather in a real kitchen. It
is difficult, if not impossible to replace the spontaneity and vitality
of an actual storyteller. But, virtual grandfather can emulate the story-telling
experience in a manner that captures the essence of a story and experience.
By using the web to tell these stories, the visitor base increases exponentially
and the audience expands from the local to the global. The thousands or
millions of visitors will share in the journeys through cyberspace while
being entertained and educated about the uniqueness of individuals along
with the shared experiences of the communities.